South Carolina: Democrats learn money isn't everything

In South Carolina this spring, Democrats played the big money game better than the GOP.

Independent liberal groups, national Democrats and influential donors spent nearly $1 million to flood the airwaves in support of Elizabeth Colbert Busch — outspending Mark Sanford’s conservative allies by more than 5-to-1.

Colbert Busch concession speech

Mark Sanford victory speech

Sure, national Democrats can say they helped Colbert Busch finish within single digits of Sanford, the former governor whose personal life became a punch line, in a district Mitt Romney won by nearly 20 points last fall.

That’s a similar line to arguments from conservative operatives who said their hundreds of millions of dollars kept Barack Obama from running away with the presidential race in 2012. While it may be true, but there’s no way to know for sure, and in politics, winning is all that matters.

“Outside spending done right can help push a good candidate over the finish line — but it can’t perform miracles with hostile electorates or abysmal candidates,” said Jonathan Collegio, a Republican consultant and spokesman for Karl Rove’s American Crossroads — which stayed clear of the South Carolina race.

Colbert Busch was the recipient of almost $900,000 in outside spending from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and House Majority PAC alone.

The irony for Democrats is that while many of their rank-and-file members oppose the kind of big outside spending that has characterized the last few election cycles, liberal groups are now as professional and institutionalized as their GOP counterparts.

“There’s always that tendency to think that the other side’s money is unfair,” said Brad Smith, a former Federal Election Commission official and the founder of the group Center for Competitive Politics. “When they’ve got a spending advantage that seems fine to them,” he said, adding, “I don’t think that’s unique to Democrats.”

House Majority PAC spun Tuesday’s results as a sign it will continue to spend big on congressional races. The group went negative early with three ads focusing on Sanford’s extramarital affair and sent five mailers to Republican and independent women.

“The big takeaway from our perspective is that we will absolutely be aggressive this cycle,” said spokesman Andy Stone. “We will take advantage of opportunities that present themselves.”